I heard that Microsoft would be buying GitHub just a couple days before it happened when Carlie Fairchild at Linux Journal told me about it. I replied to the news with a solid, “Get! Out!” Needless to say, I had my doubts. As someone who remembers all too well the “Embrace, extend and extinguish" days of Microsoft, the news of this latest embrace did, however briefly, bring back those old memories.

It feels weird to mention a Microsoft product in Linux
Journal. But to
be honest, there are some cool things coming out of the Microsoft Garage
One of those things is
"Next Lock Screen",
which is an Android app that brings interactive tools to the lock screen.

Ubuntu Kylin is an open-source Linux distribution based on Ubuntu since 2013,
mainly developed by a Chinese team alongside dozens of Linux developers all
over the world. It contains the basic features you would expect from Ubuntu, plus
features a desktop environment and applications.

When Wim Coekaerts, Microsoft's vice president for open source, took the
stage at LinuxCon 2016 in Toronto last summer, he came not as an adversary, but
as a longtime Linux enthusiast promising to bring the power of Linux to Microsoft
and vice versa. With the recent launch of SQL Server for Linux, Coekaerts is
clearly having an impact.

Microsoft Windows is usually a presence in most computing environments, and UNIX
administrators likely will be forced to use resources in Windows networks from
time to time. Although many are familiar with the Samba server software, the matching
smbclient utility often escapes notice.

In November 2016, Microsoft
became a platinum member of the Linux Foundation, the primary
sponsor of top-drawer Linux talent (including Linus), as well as a leading organizer
of Linux conferences and source of Linux news.

Every now and then, you come across a news story that makes you choke on your coffee
or splutter hot latte all over your monitor. Microsoft's recent proclamations of
love for Linux is an outstanding example of such a story.

Linux enthusiasts might think the idea of running a Linux virtual machine
on Microsoft's Azure service is like finding a penguin sun tanning in
the Sahara. Linux in the heart of the Microsoft cloud? Isn't that just
wrong on so many levels?

Recent revelations about the way that Windows 8 will make use of UEFI, the next generation PC BIOS, have caused speculation that this may cause problems for people wanting to install Linux. Potentially, this could cause the PC to switch away from its historic position as the standard bearer for open platforms.

Nokia, we invited you into our house. We let you put your feet on the coffee table. And yet this is how you treat us? Heck, we even tolerated the resistive screen on the N900, because it was a full blown Linux computer. We even put MeeGo on the cover of our March issue, and now you decide to defect to the dark side? Oh, Nokia...